13 > Page 13 of An account of Bon Harbor, in the state of Kentucky, on the Ohio River, one hundred and sixty miles below the falls; possessing extensive coal mines, great advantages for manufacturing, ship building, etc., and destined to become a place of great importance ..

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lion occur in any one State, by force of arms or otherwise, to change the character of the government, it never can be done; and of this I conceive there is not a remote possibility. The more enlightened we become, of course, the less danger there is of any such effort. The freedom of discussion, the habitual inflammatory character of our newspaper essays on political subjects the number of those newspapers the various questions always dividing the public mind, and the high strung continual struggle to engage and inflame the public mind from every quarter, neutralizes the various effects of each, like a thousand storms blowing from every point of the compass, destroying the effects of each other, they produce a general equilibrium. All inflammatory matter having selfish ends in view, result finally in nothing; and that sound reasoning which reaches the understanding alone, has any effect. The American people are, perhaps, the most reading community, and are better informed on their own governmental concerns, than any other on earth. Every man has a direct and deep interest in them, and this intelligence is annually increasing, newspapers multiplied, and cheapened in price. At this time there are monthly papers of the very largest class printed for twenty-five cents per annum. Many at shorter periods, for one dollar, and some of the finest weeklies on the continent for two dollars. The postage is merely nominal, amounting to almost nothing. Nothing is more uncommon, than to find a family without a newspaper. The effect, then, must be a continually growing intelligence, and consequently an increasing strength in our government, now incomparably the most fixed and permanent one on earth,
Thus the security of investments in real estate, never can be assailed, while the general interest is in land, as it always must be. The stocks of our general government never can be in danger, because any administration which runs the government unreasonably into debt, is immediately overthrown, and no public cry is so potent as to clear the nation of debt. Any administration wishing to be popular must proceed to do that. Small and young individual States, yet in their infancy, have repudiated. But the scorn of other States, and the power of public opinion, always bring them right again. No citizen of such a State can travel abroad without being pointed at. Such a State is under the ban and the moral sense of her people becomes sore and sick under the odium, and they finally reinstate themselves.